International: Blackberry overtakes iOS as top platform for mobile Internet browsing in US

While Nokia’s Symbian platform remains the global market leader for mobile Internet browsing, Blackberry OS has overtaken Apple’s iOS for the first time this November, according to web analytics company Statcounter.

Statcounter has said that Blackberry OS is now at 34.3 per cent, while iOS has dropped from 51.9 per cent to 33 per cent, and Android browsers are also growing quickly, up 23.8 per cent from 8.2 per cent.

Whether this means that the market is fragmenting away from the dominance of the iPhone, or if it means that iPhone users are now more reliant on web apps instead of websites is not addressed, but it seems reasonable, particularly when taking into consideration that iOS does not support Flash playback, which means that apps are able to deliver richer multimedia content than websites.

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BlackBerry overtakes Apple in Mobile Wars

BlackBerry OS overtook Apple's iOS for the first time in the US in November in terms of mobile internet usage according to web analytics company, StatCounter. The company's research arm, StatCounter Global Stats finds that for the first time in the US BlackBerry OS at 34.3% overtook Apple's iOS which recorded 33% in November.

Google's Android is rapidly gaining and has almost tripled internet market share from 8.2% last November to 23.8% this year. Apple's iOS has fallen from 51.9% to 33% over the same period.

"These figures suggest that developers should not be developing solely for the iPhone to the exclusion of BlackBerry and Android," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. He added that, if current trends continue, BlackBerry and Android combined are on course to become twice the size of iOS as regards mobile internet usage in the next year.

Commenting on Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 he said that it was not yet registering significantly in terms of internet usage but would be interesting to observe over the next year. "This data demonstrates that there is a battle royal already going on in the smartphone market for the consumer and business internet user. You can never underestimate Microsoft but it looks to have its work cut out."

BlackBerry's US lead is not replicated in terms of worldwide share according to the StatCounter data. Globally Symbian OS leads with 31.9% followed by iOS (21.9%), BlackBerry OS (19.3%) and Android (11.6%).

StatCounter Global Stats are based on aggregate data collected by StatCounter on a sample exceeding 15 billion page views per month collected from across the StatCounter network of more than three million websites. StatCounter, which provides free website traffic information, publishes worldwide internet usage trends via StatCounter Global Stats, a free online research tool.